With the advent of flexible manufacturing, it has become desirable to process an ever-increasing variety of wheels and tires, through a single assembly line. Numerous assembly lines for mounting tires are known in the prior art and are used today in the automotive industry to provide maximum production efficiency. Typically, the automated assembly line for mounted units includes a central conveyor base to accommodate various work-stations for production of the wheels.
Generally, the automotive assembly line for mounted units, such as, for example tires and wheels, includes a pair of roller conveyors, whereby each roller conveyor is designed for supporting and transferring the tires and wheels, respectively, when the tires and wheels are received from tire and wheel supplying sources, i.e. stations at the assembly plant. These stations include a tire loader station designed to position the tire on a tire supporting plate operably connected to one of the conveyors. Typically, a wheel loader station, designed to position the wheel on a wheel plate, is operably connected to another conveyor. A wheel soaper station for applying a lubricant solution onto the edges of the wheel is adjacent to the wheel loader station.
Another station of the automated assembly line, such as a tire soaper station is also provided at the assembly line for applying the lubricant around the inner circumference of the tire before mounting the tire about the wheel to form the wheel. The assembly line includes a wheel and tire mounting station for mounting lubricated tires onto the respective wheels and a tire inflation assembly for inflating the tire mounted on the wheel. Generally, the wheel is transferred by the first conveyor to the tire mounting station. At the same time, the tire is transferred by the second conveyer, positioned above the first conveyor, to the wheel mounting station. The soaping, i.e. lubricating of the tires and wheels occurs before the tire is mated with the respective wheel at a central conveyor.
The art is replete with various designs of tire mounters that include tire bed or seat for resting the tire against during mounting the tire onto the respective wheel. The U.S. Pat. No. 2,665,747 to Harrison, U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,198 to Malinski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,468 to Mueller, U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,944 to Kane, U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,828 to Curcuri, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,904 to Kane et al. disclose a variety of stuffers and seats structured to rest the tire against the seat or stuffer during mounting of the tire onto the respective wheel to slide the tire against its respective wheel to form a wheel.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,828 to Curcuri teaches an apparatus for integrated tire mounting and inflating performed at a single station that includes a pair of mutually spaced apart stuffers that seat the tire to the wheel. Each stuffer includes a shoe which is pivotally connected with a transfer pallet. Each shoe is further structured to bias against a tread of a tire to cause the tire to abut a wheel to the tires lower end. The apparatus also includes a fluidic actuator having a cylinder, pivotally connected with a transfer pallet. The actuator includes a piston rod connected with the shoe to move the shoe upwardly and downwardly while mounting the tire on the wheel.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,944 to Kane teaches a pallet conveyor of a conventional design to carry a plurality of spaced pallets, which in turn carry a vehicle wheel. A tubeless tire is rested in the inclined position upon the wheel. The forward portion of the tire rests upon a seat mounted on the conveyor. The seat causes the tire to abut against the wheel at the tires low end.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,904 to Kane et al. teaches an apparatus for mounting a tire on a wheel. The apparatus includes a robot having at least one articulated joint and a wrist, a pallet conveyor system, a tire mounting station that includes a tire engaging clamp and a seat. The tire is rested in a predetermined inclined position on the wheel. The edge of the wheel rests against the seat and the tire is held in a non-rotatable position by the clamp.
Although the prior art tire seats and stuffers for tires are widely used in the automotive industry, one of the areas of continuous development and research is the area of a more advanced design of a stuffer or tire positioner for sliding, positioning, and mounting the tire against a wheel, particularly where an assembly line is intended to process a high number of tire sizes.